Comments on astrology

Entry for January 19, 2009

Let me say a few words about astrology. Most people have the notion that astrology is what they read in the funny papers. Daily horoscopes, as far as I am concerned, are hooey. I have known some fairly reputable astrologers that signed on with newspapers or magazines to write entertainment and let people think that is astrology.

The word horoscope is from the Greek combo Hour-observer. From this origin, the word can be seen as meaning a chart for any hour of time. Individuals get one assigned for that person's birth hour. Then, the planets can again be frozen in time for a comparison of the natal chart. The planetary positions frozen on paper at the birth hour are meshed with a chart for another time after birth. This second chart can be for a projected time into the future; but a time far into the future could have no immediate importance. Therefore, a horoscope is a comparison to the individual's chart (birth chart) and a global chart (where the planets are for everyone - aka transit chart).

In other words, a newspaper horoscope is from only looking at a global chart, with 12 Sun points known (aka the zodiac signs) for comparison. The Sun points are roughly in the center of a 30-degree range, but they can be adjected to fit the degree where an important planet is traveling. This makes an entertainment horoscope mostly misses, but sometimes a strong hit happens. Chance is only at play, but there are some methods applied. Just know that a real horoscope is between a qualified astrologer and you, with an accurate birth chart cast (precise time of birth, location of birth, date of birth).

There is not causal effect argument that can be made as to how astrology works. This means a planet has no effect that will cause you to do something. Even though the Sun can make you sweat and give you a tan or sunburn, and the moon can make the tide go up and down, none of that has anything to do with astrology. Astrology is an art that requires an ability to read how the placement of planets reflects, or mirrors, their relationship to your natal planetary positions. It is all symbolic reflection.

Have you ever gone into the bathroom and looked at yourself in the mirror? Sometimes you see flaws that need to be covered up or doctored. Sometimes you see near perfection, or you see the process that is required to get close to that perfection. Sometimes you see someone tired. Sometimes you see someone unkempt. Sometimes you see someone that no longer looks like the someone you used to see there.

Now, ask yourself this question: Does that mirror cause me to look the way I look? As you come to that simple answer, ask yourself this question next: When I leave the bathroom, if someone else was to come in and looks at the same mirror, would that someone see me? If you were able to come to rational answers to these two questions, you now know see how astrology works like a mirror, reflecting self back at you.

Self is a very important thing to know. Some people know themselves very well, and go about leading their lives in ways that count on their personal strengths, while controlling their personal weaknesses. Those people do not need astrologers, if they are doing all that naturally. However, some people are blind when they look in the mirror. They see someone that is not there, thinking if they deny what they see the world will be fooled if they act like someone else. Those people usually lead lives running into bridk walls a lot. That happens when you are blind and do not admit it. Astrology could help those people (with a qualified astrologer), but health insurace is more likely to pay a shrink to help one face the realities of life.

Before someone can look at a horoscope and expect to have some stranger tell them what their future will be, that someone must first know self. In fact, a psychologist cannot help someone with their past problems if their client will not tell them the truth about themselves. In the same manner, an astrologer cannot really help anyone without knowing the person they are trying to help better.

Truth is another reflection of image. Tell the truth, the truth gets told back to you. Tell a lie and what else can you expect to hear? That is why so many fake astrologers, psychics, Tarot readers, et al get in the news. They lied about being whatever they said they were; but they were lying to liars, so they thought it was okay.

One needs to develop a relationship with a good astrologer, so an astrologer can best learn a client's natural strengths and weaknesses. This is seen by reviewing (sharing) past failures and successes seen reflected in key past charts. Then, when a reflection patterns have yielded a modus operandus, it becomes possible to see how a reflection into the future can be prepared for. However, the future, just like the past and present, happens because we act.

Only rarely does a check come in the mail out of the blue. We have to make things happen, and astrology is a way to take advantage of open windows of opportunity; but we have to have something that says we are prepared (from the past) to succeed in the future. Like the saying goes, timing is everything. Predictive astrology is the art of using the timing reflected in the planetary motions.

Nostradamus was an excellent astrologer. He was able to use astrological charts to predict a year's worth of happenings coming to France. During the 16th Century, things were much simplier, thus easier to predict what would happen at certain times, especially to natives like the king and France itself. Nostradamus was highly accurate with his astrological horoscopes, written in poetic verse style, in publications called Almanachs.

Nostradamus admitted in his letter of Preface to The Prophecies that the almanacs were calculated; but he said The Prophecies were not. He even went so far as to explain that the accuracy he enjoyed making astrological predictions was from something beyond basic abilities to calculate a chart and read some "cookbook" predictions. A "cookbook" prediciton is based on two planets being in a certain alignment, which reflects certain earthly events.

Nostradamus said he trusted his intuition, such that he pondered the charts before him and then did a zen-like blank mind stare, waiting for the voice in his inner mind to give him a picture of what would come. Nostradamus called this inner source the "good Angels" within. It means he used astrological charts to key meditative thoughts to get meaning from planetary alignments.

This means he did not practice some form of magic or alchemy to write astrological predictions. In his Preface, he stated that magic was abhorable and detestable, as well as condemned by the Catholic Church. As for alchemy, this was the practice (or art) that would lead to the science of chemistry. Nostradamus was a botanist (before that name came to be) or a herbalist, meaning he knew some recipes for potions, elixers, remedies, and balms, from using plant pedals and oils, along with some basic minerals, like talc and kaolin. Certainly, Nostradamus did not write The Prophecies because he stared into some bowl of water, while conjuring up dead spirits, seeing halucinations from chewing on mushrooms. There is no evidence that Nostradamus ever did such things, so any attempts to cast that impression are lies.

If one wants to think that alchemy was metaphysical, such that they quested for the "philosopher's stone," so they could turn lead into gold, you need to join the Masons and go through their teachings. In that sense, alchemy is philosophy, not pseudo-science. There we have symbolic reflections also, such that some regular old leadbelly can become elevated to being a wealthy goldbagger. There is nothing chemical involved in that process. Again, Nostradamus was not a mason, and Freemasonry did not develop in France in the 16th Century. Where it developed before the 18th Century was hidden in Central Europe, and Scotland, while practically nonexistant in France.

Nostradamus wrote The Prophecies because he encountered the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Jesus Christ. He was chosen as a prophet. He was told what to write. The message was to remain hidden until the time when it would become known had arrived, well after Nostradamus' death. He wrote a true Prophecy, and a true Prophecy does not come through any means other than divine inspiration. I know the Prophecy because I have been led to understand how to read what Nostradamus wrote, for complete meaning. You can read it for meaning too. You can make up your own mind that Nostradamus wrote a true Prophecy, but you have to believe in God and Jesus Christ. Otherwise, it will all still just be unintelligible to you. That is another reflection of self in the mirror. What you see is what you believe.

Oh, by the way, Nostradamus explained in his letter to Henri II that astrology originated in Sumeria (we have found facts that support that). Sumeria is where Abraham lived originally (in Ur). Jesus told Nostradamus that Abraham was the world's first great astrologer. Abraham was a great astrologer because he learned it from the master - God. God invented astrology and gave it to mankind so mankind could learn self-sontrol, while believing in God.

The Jews and Arabs were so good at astrology that the Roman Catholic Church had it banned in the West. That Church had a hard time trusting Jews and Arabs, thus their arts and practices. The past actions by the Church against astrology, Jews, and Arabs have been the cause why so many today do not have a clue what astrology really is about. Astrology, Numerology, and Tarot are all practiced by real students of true Kabballah. They all work best when you know what you are working with and you connect to God for guidance in making them work right.